Baltimore Teens Acquitted In Stabbing Death Of Cyclist

Two Baltimore teens charged as adults were acquitted of murdering a man who was biking home from work in January.

Baltimore Circuit Judge Stephen J. Sfekas said it was "clear" that Antwan Eldridge, 18, and Daquan Middleton, 17, did not mean to murder 29-year-old Robert Ponsi, reported the Baltimore Sun.

Ponsi was biking home after working at a pub in January. A large group of teens attacked him an what was described as an attempted robbery. But one of the teens pulled out a knife and stabbed Ponsi to death.

Eldridge and Middleton were let off the hook for the murder charges, but still face charges related to the robbery and could face up to 40 years in prison because the crime resulted in a murder.

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Although he has yet to be convicted, Sfekas blamed 15-year-old Prince Greene who was responsible for the fatal stabbing death of Ponsi.

"It's clear [Greene] was in a homicidal state of mind, and no one was expecting a knife was present or that a murder would take place," Sfekas said.

Greene will stand trial at a later date. He will be charged as a juvenile.

According to the Baltimore Sun, Greene was a a promising high school student who was on the debate team and once wrote a winning proposal to fund a youth program in his neighborhood.

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But those accolades didn't prevent Greene from getting involved in a gruesome crime.

"It's not hard for me to wrap my head around it, because he's a kid in the community," Thomascine Greene, Prince's mother, told the Baltimore Sun. "It's hard to wrap my heart around it."

The victim's mother, Dawn Ponsi, said she had empathy for the mother of the boy suspected of killing her own son.

"To a certain degree, my heart goes out to her as well," Dawn Ponsi said. "It's always an us-against-them mentality, with the victim's family against the accused."

But thinking about the other mother "gave me a different perspective," she said.